Yukon First Nation Calls For End To ‘Colonial’ Mine Claim Process [1]
"As the territorial government works toward a mineral development strategy, Carcross/Tagish First Nation urges an overhaul of the free entry system that it says puts rights in the hands of miners and removes it from Indigenous Peoples"
"A Yukon First Nation is calling on the territorial government to abolish its wide-open process for recognizing mineral claims, citing colonial underpinnings that have brought waves of miners to the territory since the advent of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Under Yukon’s free entry system, prospectors can stake a claim anywhere they want, as long as it isn’t in a park or on certain municipal or settlement lands, for instance.
This outdated legislation hands over the rights to miners while removing First Nations from the consultation equation, according to Carcross/Tagish First Nation. The nation voiced this concern in its response to a request for comments on a Yukon Mineral Development Strategy now in the works for the territory."